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48 If someone told you they needed to be motivated, what advice would you give them? (04/13/2023)

Rather than giving advice like use the pomodoro technique or just do it for the first five minutes, I would ask them a lot of questions.
For example, they have an exam due tomorrow, and they need motivation to start cramming for the exam. I ask questions such as "how important is the exam", "what score are they aiming for", and "how are they preparing for it". If I have some experience, I might offer advice like checking the study guide, past exams, or what other students are studying.
Lastly, I ask, "What's stopping you from doing it?"
From my personal experience, I think lack of motivation is a symptom of a different problem. For example, a lot of times, I often have difficulty getting myself to study because I get too anxious about the exam and the fear itself prevents me from studying. I care too much about the exam that I end up doing worse in it. I have the same issue for assignments. I like things to be perfect. My perfectionist attitude keeps me from starting the work early on because I think the work will come out a mess. I keep procrastinating until the night it's due and I end up creating a lackluster work because of my perfectionist attitude. Another problem is, lack of clarity. When there are no clear cut steps, it is very easy for us to be overwhelmed with fear of the unknown and to just put it aside until we can no longer avoid it. For example, if one of our assignments is to write a 5 page research paper on weed, a lot of us get stuck on where do we start. Starting becomes the hardest part because there are so many topics and so many sources to choose from. The abundance of choices make it harder to choose as we are constantly second-guessing ourselves to see if we made the best choice. To avoid that regret, we avoid making any choice and procrastinate.
Another example, exercise. Majority of people including myself want to be fit, but a lot of us don't keep up with our exercise and diet goals. It is easy to blame lack of motivation but there are other issues as well.
The way I see it, motivation is simply energy required to do something different. The more drastic the change, the bigger the motivation required. For example, brushing your teeth before you sleep. Almost everyone does it and it doesn't require you to have much motivation to do it. However, if you are trying to run at least twice a week after years of no exercise, it's going to be very hard to start and maintain that hobby. Another example, video games. It is very easy for me to pick up and play video games almost everyday consistently. However, I can't say the same thing for books. Another student who is a book-lover may have the opposite problem. She is used to reading books almost everyday, wherever she goes, she always brings the book she is currently reading in case there is any free time to kill. If you give her a new book, she could easily read it consistently everyday. However, if you give her a video game, she may find it difficult to consistently play it. Motivation isn't necessarily the energy required to do "the right thing" but rather "the different thing". Studying is easily the hardest thing for most people to consistently do. Most people blame it on lack of motivation or it being too hard. However, if you look at law students, med school students, PhD students, they study papers and books for 8+ hours almost everyday without getting too tired. Most people say they are more motivated than others but I think they are able to because they have been doing it for months or even years. Initially, doing a new hobby or activity consitently is difficult, but after the first few months of doing it, lack of motivation rarely becomes an issue because that activity has become so intertwined with your daily life that you might need motivation to not do it.

49 What’s the one thing that always brings a smile to your face? (04/13/2023)

The Department of Defense login page dog. Every time I have to sign in to my military email, I always see the same german shepherd smiling and all excited with its protection goggles on. That smile is so pure and infectious that I cannot resist smiling as well with a silent laugh in the form of a nose exhale.
I don't know why dogs are always so happy and kind compared to us humans. They are innocent like children.
That dog's name is Nick and he is an explosive patrol canine. It's main job is to look for any suspected explosives especially in conflict-raged countries. Me and other soldiers were taught about IEDs (improvised explosive devices). Anything can be an IED, that rock over there on the soil can be a pressure-activated IED. That piece of trash can also be an IED. We are taught to always be aware of anything that looks suspicious. As for Nick, his main job is to search for explosives which is the equivalent of trying to get yourself killed. If the death of a military dog potentially saves the lives of a few soldiers, then most likely, his death would be justified.
Now, when I look at his excited eyes, I wonder if he knows how dangerous his job is. Does he know that the loose wire coming out of the cereal box is potentially an IED and could kill him? Is he happy because he is unaware of the dangers? Or is he happy that despite knowing all the risks, he still chooses to do his job because he wants to protect his handler?
I believe in the latter. I believe dogs are the only animals that would put themselves in harm to protect their owners. While a dog may not fully understand the mechanics of an IED, they are aware of the risks. They are in a hostile environment where they hear gunshots and explosives throughout days and nights. They may have seen dead bodies alongside injured people and animals due to attacks. Each time they are ordered to search a suspected explosive, they are scared of getting hurt either by the explosive or an outside enemy attack yet they still do their job.
Maybe the happiest thing one can do is to self-sacrifice for the things they care about. I never understood why my dad worked 12 hour shifts every weekday overtime for almost 20 years. His answer was that he did for his family. My mom gave the same response as to why she wakes up early to make everyone breakfast or to sleep late after doing all the household chores. Both of them said they would do it all over again.